The Book of Drawings Ideas and Inspiration

The first initial idea I had for my book of drawings was to create a series of 6 digital drawings that document a journey that I take. But after a lot of researching and thinking about my idea I thought that it wasn't very exciting and that's when I came across Shaun Tan who draws every day scenes but adds animals and weird creatures to them to make them a bit more exciting and I really liked this idea.

I started to research a lot of artists that draw characters and animals and even looked at films such as My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke and they all had some really interesting characters in them which I was inspired by.

Because I had previously completed projects based around reportage, animals and creatures and people I thought that I could definitely use some inspiration from drawings I had already done. I looked through my sketchbooks and found images I liked and animals which I thought would work well in my drawings.

I was really inspired by the drawing and colouring style of Rodrigo Araya because I like how simple yet quite effective it is and I took a lot of inspiration from style.

I thought about how I would assemble the book once I had completed my drawings. I looked at a variety of binding methods and found a YouTube video which was very helpful.

Bobby Chiu

http://www.imaginismstudios.com/artists/Bobby%20Chiu

Bobby Chiu is an artist from Canada and I researched him because he draws really crazy characters and they look they like are inspired by Tim Burton/Alice in Wonderland and I really like his style.  The colours he uses and his colouring technique play a part in how effective the image as whole is and i think every aspect of the sketches work really well together. 

Here are some of his images that I am really inspired by:  

Creature Box

http://creaturebox.com/

http://creaturebox.com/blog/

Creature Box is a collaborative company of two people and they focus their work around creating creatures and characters. They draw monsters, robots, cartoons and aliens and lots of other illustrations. I am really inspired by their creatures, I think they are fantastically drawn and created and I really like their style. 

Here are some of their creatures that I am inspired by:

 

Dead Zebra Inc.

http://www.creaturesinmyhead.com/
http://www.deadzebra.com/project/creatures-in-my-head/

Dead Zebra are a company from Brooklyn run by artist Andrew Bell. I focussed on the project names 'The Creatures in my Head.' because I was really interested in what characters he had come up with. I think they are all really impressive, I like the way they have been created and `i think they style they have been drawn in is really effective.

Here are some images that I really like from this project.

Crotchety Comics

http://crotchetycomics.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/creatures.html
http://crotchetycomics.tumblr.com/

Crotchety Comics is an animator from California and I researched him because I was interested in his drawings of creatures and animals. I really like the technique he uses to sketch his characters because they are sketchy but I think they work well as a final image as well as a development stage. I also really like the imagination behind his characters, they are very unusual but that's what makes it work. 

Here are some examples of his work that I am inspired by: 

Will Terry

http://willterry.com/index.php

http://willterry.com/books.php

http://www.willterry.blogspot.co.uk/

I came across a children's book illustrator called Will Terry and I really like the animals that he draws. They are really unusual creatures and I think they fit in well with what I am trying to do for my final book of drawings. 

Joel Millerchip

http://mistermillerchip.com/
http://www.ngngdesign.com/joel-millerchip

We were also privileged to have Joel Millerchip come and speak to us also and he is a very interesting artist. I really like his style of drawing and his outlook on the artist world. His style impresses me a lot and I really like the simple black and white design in the majority of his work, it is very effective. Here are some images that I really like of his. 

CRAWW

http://www.craww.com/

http://craww.wordpress.com/

We were privileged to have a visit from 'Craww' who very kindly spoke to us about his work, the way he works and also let us have a look through his original sketchbooks which was awesome. I really enjoyed looking at his work and I was very inspired by it. I like his style because it is very unique and you can tell that it just comes naturally to him.  

I've attached some images of his from his sketchbooks that I really like.